Home Standby Generators

[imperial70]

Has anyone any experience with owning one of these?
I'm thinking of getting a whole house (in my case 14KW Kohler) generator that is fully automatic and natural gas fired.

I just finished speaking with the sales rep from Generator Connection in NH and he was very easy to speak with and no pushy sales tactics. I also spoke with Powers Generators, same no pressure sales.

Anyone have any caveats/concerns to mention?

thanks in advance.

 

[hydralique]

Natural gas is the best way to go on this. I've dealt with people who worry that gas service would be disrupted in a natural disaster and therefore want a diesel generator, but the latter is a huge nightmare: the fuel has to be replenished regularly as it does have a shelf life, special tanks installed, containment structures in the event of a leak, etc, etc.

 

On a new house generator installation there is usually some special wiring that isolates non-essential loads from more important loads like refrigerators and lighting, but this isn't essential -  you can always just hook it up to the 120v circuits and control everything manually.

 

[countryguy]

I had a whole house stand by generator installed about 7 years ago. Mine is a 17 Kw made by Generac and it operates on propane as there is no natural gas available. I live in the country so the generator operates the water pump, sewage pump, the circulation pump for the propane hot water boiler, electric water heater, fridge, freezer, stove and everything else in the house except for the washer/dryer. The electricity goes out often - summer and winter. We had a storm 2 months ago and the electricity was out for 24 hours..the generator ran the entire time. It starts automatically 30 seconds after the electricity goes out and shuts down 2 minutes after the electricity comes back on. It also 'exercises' weekly at the same time for 15 minutes. I have sleep apnea and use a cpap machine so being without electricity is not an option for me. The system was expensive to install but worth it.

Gary

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www.generac.com

 

[countryguy]

Here is another thread where standby generators were discussed.

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www.automaticwasher.org

 

[davetranter]

Standby Set

I wouldn't be without one, even though 'outages' are usually very short here. there is always the chance for a 'Big One' sometime. I have never bothered with an automated system, but have a small petrol (gasoline) set which I can simply 'plug in' if and when required.

Summer temperature/humidity here is tolerable, if uncomfortable, so running A/C is not an issue, and for Winter I have a 'stand-alone' gas heater, so my major concern during a long outage would be to run the freezer for an hour every 8, or 2 hours every 12 to keep it frozen, so a 5-gallon 'Jerry Can' of fuel should last quite a while.

I understand that if you have regular and/or longer outages, then the expense may be justified. I am familiar with automated sets from my Telecommunications background, and, indeed, I have a 'pensioned-off' 25KW 3-phase set in my garage, which I've never 'gotten around' to doing anything with. The 'exercise' procedure with these sets can be irritating nowadays, with the surprising quantities of electronic clocks we all seem to have, which will need resetting each time.

All best

Dave T

 

[countryguy]

Dave T,

I'm not understanding your statement about the exercise procedure being irritating? When my generator does the exercise routine, the electricity to the house is not interrupted so nothing needs to be reset.

Gary

 

[retropia]

We have an 8KW Generac automatic, which runs the most important circuits we want to have available, but not all. It runs on natural gas. The only maintenance required is a once-a-year oil change with synthetic oil, or a more frequent oil change is required if it has had to run for extended periods.

When it does its once a week test run, for around 20 minutes, it doesn't interrupt the regular electricity. The big hammer switch only flips when the main electricity goes out.

We actually had quite a few small problems with ours the first few years. There was a problem with the big hammer switch, and then we also had problems with gas leaking from a faulty valve between the house and the unit. It was all fixed under warranty, and now that the three-year warranty is over, it is finally reliable.

One thing I would recommend is that you INSIST on getting a receipt every time someone comes to do any service on the unit, as that is your proof that something was wrong and it was serviced. We'd purchased ours through Home Depot, and the contractors they used weren't very forthcoming with the paperwork.

 

[davetranter]

'Exercise'

I suppose it depends upon the system design. All ours on the British G.P.O. take the full load when exercised (usually 3-monthly, but they DO live in a fully heated indoor environment). The sets at the local hospitals are the same. A friend of mine lived for a while within the curtilage of one, and his supply was interrupted twice (at start and stop) every Saturday morning, 9am and 9:15am, and that quickly became a drag.

All best

Dave T

P.S.
The G.P.O. sets are also full load and 'overload' tested for 8 hours every 2 years using a mobile Loading Frame which is moved from building to building for the purpose, usually at the same time as their Full Service.

 

[tolivac]

Remeber the genset exercisors for commercial stations-esp unmanned transmitter plants-the exercisor was set to test the generator late Sunday night-Moday morning before 4:00A.It would run for an hour using the site equipment as its load.Some large gensets exercise into a VERY large heating element test dummy load-remember one for a gov't building for a 900Kw Cat genset-480V 3ph.This generator had its radiators and the load remotely mounting in the parking lot of the building.When it exercised-that load ran HOT-you could see the heat waves blowing from it and the exhaust of the generator.It was intended to take up the building load if the power went out.It could even run some of the buildings elevators-the elevators were marked that could run from the generator.The chillers would not run from the generator-so it would get hot inside-you could still run a fan at your desk.

 

[brucelucenta]

My parents have had one of these for several years now and been very happy with it. I recently got one too, but have not used it to date. I know their's would kick on 10 seconds after a power loss and turn back off when the power came back on.

 

[58limited]

I bought one after hurricane Rita and I loved it. When hurricane Ike hit, enough salt water came over the seawall to short it out and I haven't bought another one yet due to the costs. I will build a four foot platform to set it on this time.